Portable electric light



F. G. SPIERS.

PORTABLE ELECTRIC LIGHT. APPLlCATlON FILED NOV. 29, 191B.

Patented Jan. -6, 1920.

nnrrnn s'mrns PATENT orrion FREDERICK G. SPIERS, OF JAMAICA, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO NATIONAL'GARBON COMPANY, INC., OF NEW YORK, N. Y.,

A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

PORTABLE ELECTRIC LIGHT.

Application filed November 29, 1918.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK G. Srrnns, a citizen of the United States, residing at Jamaica, in the county of Queens and State of New York, have invented certain. new and useful Improvements in Portable Electric Lights, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof.

My invention relates ,to self-contained or battery-operated portable electric lights, particularly of the-kind in which the battery-containing and lamp-carrying casing has a main body part of insulating material such as fiber, which is provided with metallic fittings, this main body part commonly being tubular and provided at its opposite ends with similar screw-threaded sheet metal retaining rings or bands, one of which receives 7 and retains in place a metallic screw-threaded end cap, and the other which commonly receives and holds in place a lens-retaining screw-threaded outer ring. Heretofore, these metallic end rings have commonly been secured in place upon the ends of the fiber body tube by means of tubular rivets passing through such body tube and through an inner exposed unthreaded or smooth part of the end ring, so-that the retaining rivets or eyelets were visible after the outer end cap at one endand the lens-retaining ring at the other end had been screwed in place. These exposed eyelets detract from the elegance of appearance of the light. The object of my invention is to eliminate these objectionable exposed eyelets, and in fact to do away with such eyelets altogether, and to expose to sight only the smoothly finished plated and polished metal, without visible perforations or unevennesses of any kind whatsoever, thereby greatly improving the appearance and consequently the salability of the ligl'it. In the preferred form of my invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings, I accomplish this desirable ob ect by providing each of theend rings or bands with an inturned flange eXtendingat-the inner side of the tubular body part, this inner flange having retaining prongs punched from the inside outward into the material of the fiber body part at the inner side thereof, no per- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 6, 1920.

Serial No. 264,522.

forations or recesses being previously provided either in said flange or in said body part.

I shall now describe the portable electric light embodying my invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings and shall thereafter point out my invention in claims.

Figure l is an exterior side elevation of a portable electric light having a casing embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is anenlarged partial central longitudinal section of the right end of the casing appearing in Fig. l with the end cap removed.

Fig. 3 is a transverse section on a plane indicated by the line 33 of Fig. 2 as viewed from the left, the securing prongs being shown in elevation.

Fig. 4 is a further enlarged perspective view of what appears in the lower part of 'Fhe portable electric light having a casing embodying my invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings, has a fiber tube 1 forming the main cylindrical body part of the battery-containing and lamp-carrying casing, which is shown complete in side elevation in Fig. 1. At each of its opposite ends the casing tube 1 is permanently provided with a retaining member in the form of an outer metallic end ring or band formed of a single piece of sheet metal and shown as including an exposed smooth slightly tapered marginal part 2, a main or middle part 3 formed with pressed or in dented screw-threads, an annular end wall 4, and an inturned or reversely turned smooth cylindrical inner flange 5 extending snugly at the inside of the cylindrical casing tube 1, as shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 4, and there terminating in a smooth and unbroken inner edge, as shown in Figs. 2 ands.

It is to be noted that the screw-threaded end ring or retaining ring above described is duplicated at each end of the casing tube 1, only the smooth. cylindrical marginal part 2 of these screw-threaded end rings appearing in Fig. 1, while in Figs; 2, 3 and 4 the end ringv appearing at the right in Fig. 1 is more particularlyillustrated, but it is to be understood that the other end ring, the smooth edge part 2 of which appears at the left in Fig. 1, is a substantial duplicate of the end ring more particularly illustrated in Figs. 2, 3 and 4 of the drawings.

A usual sheet metal screw-threaded end cap 6 is screwed over the screw-threaded end ring at the rear or inner end of the casing tube 1, as shown at the right in Fig. 1, and similarly a lens-retaining sheet metal ring 7 is screwed over the other screwthreaded end ring at the front or outer end of the casing tube 1, as shown at the left in Fig. 1, and holds in place a usual lens 8. The other parts of the portable electric light appearing in elevation in Fig. 1 and not particularly illustrated in the drawings do not relate to my present invention and may be of a usual or of any suitable construction. As is well understood in the art, such parts commonly include a dry battery, a miniature incandescent lamp, a lamp socket, a reflector, and means for controlling the circuit of the lamp through the battery, of which the contact box and other parts of the circuit-controller appear incidentally at the top in Fig. 1.

Each of the screw-threaded end rings of the fiber-body l is securely held in place by means of angularly inwardly directed triangular prongs 9, punched outward from the sheet metal of the previously imperfo- 'ate inner cylindrical flange 5, and forced at the time of such punching into the inner side of the previously smooth and unrecessed material of the body part 1, forming at the time a recess 10 therein in which the locking tongue or prong 9 has locking engagement as shown in Figs. 2 and dot the drawings. The retaining prongs 9 are located outward in spaced relation from the smooth inner edge of the smooth inner flange so as to form apertures in this flange and leave its smooth edge unbroken.

This construction gives a smooth and unmarred exterior finish in which the fastening means or securing devices for the permanent end rings are entirely invisible, and when the inner end cap 6 and the outer lensring 7 are in place, only the smooth unbroken and unmarred marginal part 2 of each of the screw-threaded end rings or re taining rings is'visible, as is shown in Fig. 1, whereby the appearance and hence the value of the device is greatly enhanced over that of the usual construction, in which this exposed margin 2 would be marred and the elegance of finish spoiled by the hereinbefore mentioned eyelets or tubular rivets heretofore commonly employed for main taining similar screw-threaded end rings in place.

It is obvious that various modifications may be made in the construction shown in the drawings and above particularly described within the principle and scope of my invention.

1 claim:

1. A portable electric light having a casing of the kind in which a main body part is permanently provided with a metallic retaining member at the outside of an end or edge thereof for removably holding in place an outer part which has detachable engagement over the outside of said retaining member, characterized by the fact that such retaining member has a rcvor ely turned flange extending over the edge and to the inner side of said body part, said inner flange having a smooth unbroken inner edge and that means cooperative with said inner flange and body part are provided outward in spaced relation from the smooth inner edge of said inner flange for securing the metallic retaining member in place on the body part.

2. A portable electric light having a casing of the kind in which a tubular main body part is permanently provided at its end at the outside thereof with a screwthreaded sheet metal retaining ring for removably holding in place an outer part which screws over said retaining ring, characterized by the fact that the outer end of such retaining ring is "formed with an unthreaded part having a smooth edge, and that this retaining ring is secured in place by means of a projection from and spaced from the smooth edge of said unthreaded part entering a corresponding recess in the tubular body part. a

3. A portable electric light having a casing of the kind in which a tubular body part of fiber or similar material is permanently provided at the outside of its end with a screw-threaded sheet metal retaining ring for removably holding in place an outer part which screws over said retaining ring, characterized by the fact that such retaining ring is provided at its outer end with a reversely turned flange extending to the inside of the end. of the body tube and there terminating in a smooth unbroken inner edge, and that such inner flange is provided in spaced relation to its edge with one or more ring-retaining projections entering corresponding recesses at the inner side of the wall of the body tube.

41-. The invention claimed in claim 3 which said. ring-retaining projections are in the form of prongs punched from said inner flange outwardly so as to form apertures in said inner flange and forced into the material of the previously unrecessed body part.

In testimony whereof, I have afiixed my signature to this specification.

FREDERICK G. SPIERS. 

